Semien's Rise to the Top Began with Batting at the Top of the Lineup

Athletics' shortstop Marcus Semien credits his breakout season in 2019 in part to getting more at-bats thanks to being put into the leadoff role.

Marcus Semien was in the lineup Monday night leading off with the A’s, who won four games over the weekend to get back to .500 at 6-6, taking on the visiting Chicago Cubs.

Nothing odd about that, right? It just seems normal to see the shortstop in the top spot in the lineup, setting up the A’s to score, as often as not, a bushel of runs.

Well, consider opening day last year. The leadoff hitter for the A’s was … Ramon Laureano? Yup. Semien was in the lineup, of course, because he always is, but he batted eighth in the opener against the Mariners in Tokyo.

He would be in the leadoff spot for Game 2, and, ultimately, for 145 of the 162 games he started. It was a huge change. He’d never led off even half the time in his first four seasons with the Mariners, topping out at 69 leadoff starts in 2018 before grabbing the role last year.

And 2019 was a breakout season. Batting leadoff was good for Semien, who put together a slash line of .285/.369/.522 with 43 doubles, seven triples, 33 homers, 92 runs driven in and a club record-tying 123 runs scored. That last bit is no mean feat, given that this is the organization the reinvented the leadoff hitter with the emergence of Rickey Henderson four decades ago.

Semien looks at the numbers and he credits much of his breakout season to manager Bob Melvin deciding that Semien was his leadoff hitter.

“I think it really helped me to get placed in the leadoff spot,” Semien told NBCS-CA over the weekend. “(There are) more at-bats, and I feel that I get better as we go on. The more at-bats I got, the better I got.”

Semien got better as he dug into the leadoff spot, and not by a little, either. In the first half he had a decent output, .271/.349/.448 with 14 homers and 48 RBI. That was in 92 games. There were only 70 games after the All-Star break, and it seemed as if Semien hit in most of them. He put together a .304/.396/.621 slash line with 19 homers and 44 RBI.

“I learned a lot last year about my swing and about the league (while batting leadoff),” Semien said. “And I just want to continue on with what I did last year.

It was in the second half that he became a star and was one of the top three finalists in the American League MVP race.

“That meant a lot to me,” Semien said of being an MVP finalist. “I think that playing with guys (third baseman Matt Chapman and first baseman Matt Olson) who have won the Gold Glove and seeing how it’s done, that helped me a lot to make my level of play that much better. Offensively, a lot of things came together as well.

“I’ll keep on working on those things into spring training.”

Chapman, who has grown into Gold Glove eminence while playing beside Semien at third base, says one reason Semien is so good is how much work he’s willing to put in.

“People don’t understand how much work goes into a 162-games season,” Chapman said this weekend. “We have Marcus … who is a really hard worker. We have a lot of hard workers, guys who love baseball and who are determined to not only win but to get the best out of themselves. It’s nice when you have guys like that because it seems like you don’t have to say too much or to hold guys accountable.”